Gukanshō (愚管抄, lit. "Jottings of a Fool") is a historical and literary work about the history of Japan. Seven volumes in length, it was composed by Buddhist priest Jien of the Tendai sect around 1220.[1]
Political problems arising from the relations between the Imperial government and the bakufu inspired Jien to write.[2] Jien was the son of Fujiwara no Tadamichi, and his insider's perspective ensured that his work would have a distinct point of view. Rather than working towards an absence of bias, he embraced it; and Gukanshō is fairly described as a work of historical argument.[3] The writer does try to approach Japan's past in a new way, but he does so under the influences of old historical and genealogical interests.[4]
Contents
The text is composed of three major sections:
- Volumes 1 and 2 consist of imperial chronicle beginning with Emperor Jimmu and concluding with Emperor Juntoku.
- Volumes 3 through 6 present a historical description focusing on political transitions.
- Volume 7 offers a summary of the contemporary state of the Japanese polity.
The careful writer attempted to apply Buddhist principles such as mappō to the process of developing a chronicle of people and events. He was also self-consciously focused on the application of Buddhist principles in the analysis of Japanese history.[5] However, Jien could never completely divorce his position as a son and brother of Fujiwara kogyū[clarification needed] officials from his position as a priest who studied and practiced Buddhism.[6]
See also
- Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo
- International Research Center for Japanese Studies
- Japanese Historical Text Initiative
- Historiography of Japan
Notes
References
- Brown, Delmer and Ichiro Ishida, eds. (1979). Gukanshō; "The Future and the Past: a translation and study of the 'Gukanshō,' an interpretive history of Japan written in 1219" translated from the Japanese and edited by Delmer M. Brown & Ichirō Ishida. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03460-0
- Brownlee, John S. (1991). Political Thought in Japanese Historical Writing: From Kojiki (712) to Tokushi Yoron (1712). Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 0-88920-997-9
- (in Japanese) Okami, Masao and Toshihide Akamatsu. (1967). [Jien, c. 1220] Gukanshō. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten. ISBN 4-00-060086-9
- (in Japanese) 愚管抄
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This page was last edited on 23 February 2023, at 15:58